"Jack McKinney - Robotech 03 - Homecoming" - читать интересную книгу автора (McKinney Jack)

In the midst of the performance, people had forgotten about the four
forlorn figures sitting on their chairs, very much in the background now but
unable to make an escape. Only Max Sterling seemed unbothered and happy.
Rick shifted the bouquet on his lap despondently. He saw it all now:
Minmei had been elevated to a different level of existence. What they had gone
through together and felt for each other didn't matter anymore. He had lost her.
Lisa leaned toward him to ask, "What's the matter, Rick?"
He shook himself, drawing a deep breath. "Nothing. The light bothers my
eyes, is all."
Lisa saw it wasn't true. She hadn't gotten to be a commander and the SDF-
1's First Officer by being unobservant or slow to understand what was going on.
But that didn't help her figure out what she was feeling as she looked at Rick
and the now-unreachable Minmei: some complicated mixture of relief and
foreboding.
Minmei's hands were high, and she had moved the crowd into a veritable
transport of joy. White light blazed all around her, and it seemed that every
hope and aspiration was embodied in her.

"I can't believe I've come this far,
This is my time to be a star!"

The hatch to the battle fortress's bridge slid aside; all heads turned.
Gasps and yells sounded from all sides.
Lisa felt better already, there in the place that was most important to
her. "Hi," she said shyly, not recognizing many of the faces and wishing only to
get back to her station, get back to her work. She would have died before
admitting that she wanted to drive all other thoughts out of her mind-to forget.
Claudia placed one hand to her chest in a "mercy me" sort of pose. "The
prodigal returns!" The dark face creased in lines of real welcome, and Lisa
began to feel better.
Gloval was absent from the bridge. The relief watch tech at Lisa's usual
station stepped away from it, glad to see Lisa but a little intimidated before
the omnipotent superwoman. "Nice to see you again," the enlisted rating
squeaked.
Lisa, nervous as a cat, managed to meet her eye for a moment. "Thank you
very much," Lisa got out, essaying a smile and then hiding behind her thick
curtian of brown hair again. "It's nice to be back."
She ran her fingertips across the console's controls, lost in thought.
There had been so many times when she'd never expected to stand there again.
The women on the bridge were paying her a kind of attention that didn't
really conform to any conventional military courtesy-happy for her and taking
liberties with standard procedure.
"Congratulations on your promotion!"
"And you're a real hero!"
"We're all so proud of you, Lisa!" The tech who'd been watching over
Lisa's station had her hands clasped, smiling beatifically.
 These were all women who had served their time under fire, who had come to
know what it was Lisa Hayes did so well and how much of a difference her actions
had made in the fate of SDF-1. Their few words meant so much more to her than
the spotlights and crowds-she felt her tension ease; she was home again.